The Italian American War Veterans held a wreath-laying ceremony on May 29, 2022, in Fall River, Massachusetts, to honor veterans, particularly those of Italian American heritage, who made the ultimate sacrifice. The event began with opening remarks from the president of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, followed by the presentation of colors, the Pledge of Allegiance led by Master Sergeant Theodore Banks, and the singing of the National Anthem by Rachel Raposa. A chaplain offered an opening prayer, and Mayor Bill Coogan spoke about the significant contributions of Italian Americans to the U.S. military, noting their large representation in World War II and over two dozen Congressional Medals of Honor. The ceremony included the laying of a wreath by Aurora and Commander Frank Di Matteo, and a special dove release, featuring one white dove and a squadron of homing pigeons, symbolizing the birds used in combat. Attendees were invited to continue the remembrance at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Mykaila Brito concluded the ceremony by thanking attendees and acknowledging Gold Star family members.
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i'm the president of the aura sons and daughters from italy okay as an affiliate lodge throughout the state of massachusetts nationwide so but anyhow briefly i want to thank you each and every one are here today and terry and i say special pray last night for a beautiful day and came true okay thank you to the city official the state officials thank you thank you to be here okay at this point right now i will call
0:32my brother bill to help me dress at the follow ceremony thank you well i'm on the orders for mr luciola as we all know he's off the orders okay present the colors please because everybody please stand we're gonna do the pledge of allegiance which will be followed by the national anthem uh master sergeant theodore banks will lead us in a salute hey gunny oh sorry gunny excuse me okay ready
1:08salute for those who have caps i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic which stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all miss rachel raposa good morning actually it's afternoon good afternoon please sing with me if you'd like oh say can you see by the dawn's early life what's so proudly we hail at the twilight's last gleaming
2:02whose broad stripes and bright stars through
2:14watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled benner yet wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave thank you very much
3:14okay before we bring us um special guest well i just thank two people that completely helped me briefly is bill damaris and uh my kylo brito thank you thank you for all y'all thank you so much at this point we called the chaplain to open prayer chaplain thank you mary okay please uncover thank you dear lord thank you for this wonderful day that we will again also remember in our prayers as we do each and every
4:04fallen brother and sister and we come every year to do this and every year it is an honor for anyone who is a veteran or any other way just to thank them for their what they did for their their country and for the freedom we have today father thank you and i want to bless you and ask for your blessings upon each and every brother here as we are partaking the rest of the events here today
4:35amen thank you thank you thank you my pleasure thank you so much reverend is this not going to hate me all right okay at this point i want to invite the uh you over to may of our city bill coogan oh i don't know if you'll wander off okay obviously this is another very special memorial day in um in fall river both to honor all of the veterans especially those that gave the ultimate sacrifice and the
5:18weather has just been so nice to cooperate with us this this year at this italian-american monument i did a little bit of reading this morning on it and italians represented a good portion of our veterans from the revolutionary war through the present day italians in world war ii were the largest ethnic fighting force for the allied's allied forces or for the united states of america they made
5:49up the biggest percentage was all italians they've earned over two dozen congressional medals of honor fighting for this country and with the italians you have strong patriotism loyalty and love of america time and time again as you do with many of the ethnic groups so to come down here to honor this italian-american war veterans memorial is a very very important function of government i'm glad you all
6:17joined us today and let's let the rest of the ceremony take place thank you all for coming and we really appreciate it
6:36well should i place the week no yes yes okay right now i as most of you know all of you know that thanks to the veteran that placed our wreath here which an honor for us but we were the order the veterans in the center valley decide to make our own contribution for that wreath so therefore i invite our order my cousin aurora and the commander frank di mateo please we praise your reed
7:17grip
7:42i'm sorry
7:51okay bill um there's one person here that i don't know what i do without of him but sometimes he's a pain sometimes he's beautiful sometimes he's my brother sometimes i don't know what to call him and that's a joe marshall please joey come up here next to us please so before again i hand the microphone i know it's briefly because we have to move by the way all of us we all of us
8:23are we invited to go at the wall ceremony so don't take your chairs please leave the chairs behind and then we just walk where bills and the rest of the veterans invite us to the wall i'll give you a joy quick quick for brief joy um mario went over this program i won't even tell you how many times so trying to work things and bill's been excellent trying to put us in some direction but
8:55we're here we're here today to lay the wreath at this monument but i'm here today to invite people to continue the ceremony over at the vietnam veterans memorial wall so as we conclude here and bill has a has something else he's going to be doing with the dubs correct um once we conclude here we can uh and like mario said don't bring your chairs um we'd like to meet everybody over at the
9:26wall and and continue the remembrance uh for this memorial day thank you thank you thank thank you thank you okay is one only state president today the president on sylvia brother al silva and also he's a member a lodge that's right he's italian you don't want to say anything but i say he's italian thank you bell just the kosher okay we're going to uh we're going to do a ceremony that we do
10:05you've probably been that before releasing of the white doves but today we're releasing one white dove and then we're going to release a squadron of homing pigeons the same that we used in combat in world war one world war ii and even in vietnam uh because these uh birds lived alongside our troops saving lives carrying messages and uh in some cases cameras and other equipment really well
10:27um luciola can you uh call up on one person to hold the dove to release it does anybody volunteer to hold the dove otherwise i'll do it stand up if you do okay closely let's do it okay bob you're in charge
10:58commence as the dove flies to heaven please send upon the dove wings your special prayer and personal message
12:07nope he's a great
13:33just so you know walking in behind you could turn your head slightly to the rear 300 over 300 motorcycles have come down from new hampshire maine and vermont rhode island to come here to fall river until they reached at all the ceremonies and it's nice to come our city because our city is hosting the vietnam war and hosting veterans from not just massachusetts but all these states
13:52please join us later for that thank you thank you okay just bear with me for a second before we close it i would like to call my kyla please
14:11see you the best for the list just want to say thank you to everybody who's been coming out to all of our different um memorial ceremonies today and that we need to make sure that we remember and honor not only our our fallen but our gold star family members who have been left behind tim joanne i thank you for being here and if there are any other gold star families would you please recognize
14:43i did say doing um so thank you very much for being here um counselor pereira excuse me as i choke and of course the mayor and alan sylvia thank you all for being here today thank you thank you kyla thank you so much she's here somewhere hello linda welcome okay with that all right this is the first time i do something in military you know i'm gonna do something we don't but
15:20i think what they do great bill joey reverend and to derail thank you thank you so much mayor paul and each and every one of you thank you thank you so much i'll practice and next time we'll do a better job right love you all thank you